Purely Commentary
The Jewish 'Gene' as Viewed by Lord Snow
Because Lord C. P. Snow, the distinguished British author, believes
that the Jews have displayed a measure of intellectual superiority,
thereby giving credence to what others charge as being chauvinistic,
the journalistic craft has become jittery. Editors of several periodicals
have swooned. They seem to have become frightened by the gene-pool
compliments from a man who was enthralled by the work of an
Einstein, who knows that more than 25 per cent of all Noble Prize
winners have been Jews, who recognizes that Jews have gained distinc-
tion in many fields of endeavor.
Truthfully, Lord Snow's comments deserve consideration primarily
in his analysis of a condition resulting from a need to rise above the
status into which our people had been forced by an unfriendly world.
If there is a disproportionate performance of Jewish superiority—as
there undoubtedly is—it is the result of a challenge, of the need to
overcome difficulties, of rising above the degradations to which our
people had been subjected through the ages.
It had been said time and time again that in order to be accepted
as being half as good as his neighbor the Jew had to perform twice
as well. It had been a battle against great odds, a struggle for exis-
tence and for survival.
That's why the Jew rose above his environment. That's why the
gene produced so well. That's why there has been an intellectual
superiority—and because we are so small in numbers we pray that
this superiority will continue for the good of mankind and in the
interest of Jewish survival.
Is this chauvinism? Call it what you may: it is truth. When there
is need to battle against discrimination it is vital that there should
be an urge to defy prejudices—and what better way than by being
creative, by rising high in the processes of humanitarian, social, cul-
tural and spiritual endeavors?
As a matter of fact, we have reason to believe that our Negro
fellow-citizens will, similarly, soon, show great skills and will match
their neighbors in intellect. They must achieve a gene status in the
best interests of their aims for a good life. That's how the down-
trodden begin to prosper: by matching their oppressors in wits and in
skills and in intellect.
Of course, there are no superior peoples. Such a claim would be
akin to the Hitlerian theory. But there are social pressures, environ-
mental challenges, deniands that often come from oppressive atmo-
spheres, all of which cause the person or the people who are function-
ing under handicaps to overcome them and to rise above the degrada-
tions or deprivations.
So—to Lord Snow we say: don't be upset by the critics. If they
possess the same skills as their fellow-Jews who have attained the
gene triumphs you spoke of and yet are jittery about acknowledging
them, they are just on the panicky side: it is often so natural for people
to fear self-recognition! But facts are facts and you will surely adhere
to them.
$
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The Bluffs at Press Conferences
Perhaps Arab emissaries, including King Hussein, will learn, as
time progresses, that you can't fool too many people too often.
Jordan's king made many statements here that sounded like olive
branch offerings. Soon, however, it became evident that he had not
brought anything new with him. The semi-official Cairo newspaper was
among the first to indicate that he had not proposed changes in atti-
tudes involving Egypt—thus serving notice that anything that might
lead to negotiations with Israel is being ruled out.
Two matters involving the Hussein proposals need to be reviewed.
In the first place, there is not a single Israeli who will consent to
the abandonment of any portion of Jerusalem from the present unified
structure. Insofar as the world at large is concerned, no one should be
permitted to forget that for 19 years, contrary to United Nations deci-
sions, Jews were not permitted to get anywhere near the Western
(Wailing) Wall and the area needed to be recaptured after Hussein had
begun shelling the New City of Jerusalem. It takes a considerable
amount of gall now for Hussein to say that he'll grant Jews access to
the Holy Places in Jerusalem.
In the first place, Jerusalem is Israeli, it is Jewish, it is the City of
David, inseparable from our history, from Israel, the scriptural pro-
phecies related to us. It can never be separated from Israel.
Then, it must be remembered that there was no freedom of reli-
gion in Jerusalem until Israel regained the portion that was ruled from
Amman. In the name of religious liberty, Jerusalem will remain in
Jewish hands.
A second Hussein bluff relates to the Straits of Tiran. It was at that
point that Nasser threatened to cut Israel's lifeline prior to June 5. Now
Hussein puts on a front of offering Israel access to waterways—after
he and.Nasser had broken all pledges to adhere to international mari-
time regulations. But Israel has regained her just rights at Tiran and
these cannot be taken from her.
The Israeli who admonished Hussein that peace must be made at a
conference table and not at a press club struck at the root of the issue.
The members of the press club should understand this by this time.
•
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75 Years of Council of Jewish Women's Services
During the 75 years of the movement's existence, the National
Council of Jewish Women gained distinction as one of the major
women's organizations in this country. In the task of aiding immigrants,
in the field of education, in aid to children, the National Council estab-
lished a record for humanitarianism that is unsurpassed in the history
of social services.
In recent years, the NCJW expanded its activities. It is assisting in
housing programs, in .tutorial and remedial reading courses, and by
establishing a high school in Israel has aided in removing shortcomings
in Israel's educational system.
In these and in many other areas, in its cooperation with all the
major national Jewish organizations, NCJW has retained a noteworthy
position in American and Jewish ranks.
Detroit is privileged that one of its women leaders, Mrs. Leonard
H. Weiner, heads NCJW as national president.
To this women's movement we extend greetings on the 75th anni-
versary.
Ritual Murder Libel Again Treated With Unconcern
for Truth . . . Lord Snow and the Jewish Gene Views
Create Controversy . . . Women's Council's Anniversary
How Long Can We Endure Ignorance?
All our troubles stem from irgnorance. Hatred for Israel results from distorted facts. Hussein's tongue-in-
cheek propaganda proved it last week. The attitude of the New Left membership that stems from our own
kinsmen adds to the calamity.
If only the historic truths were known, if the experiences of our people had not sunk into secrecy, we
would have less to concern us.
A typical example of a lack of knowledge and failure to understand history's lessons stared at us a
short time ago in an article about the Passover and Jerusalem and Jews and Israel in the Detroit Free
Press.
In her report on the Passover, the writer who appeared inspired by the glory of a "this year in Jerusa-
lem" nevertheless fell prey to an old canard, to the most dastardly lie ever perpetrated against us: the
blood libel. She wrote in her story: "It has been rumored . . . that in order to make matzos, Jews must
use the blood of Christian babies." She predicated it on her statement that "some strange legends" have
been created about Passover.
Just a legend? Not an atrocious lie which resulted in the death of tens of thousands of Jews, of the
decimation of Jewish communities, of mass murders? Merely a legend—not another lie that is again being
resorted to by the bigots in the Soviet Ukraine and the spreaders of hatred in Cairo?
Doesn't a writer feel the responsibility of learning facts instead of peddling legends? Of course not—
there is no such responsibility when dealing with legends. But there is that duty when a people is libeled
and when, in the instance of the ritual murder libel, Christians with a sense of honor found it necessary
to condemn its being spread— and Popes have issued encylicals repudiating it because those who first
suffered from such lies were not Jews but Christians!
It's an old libel, and long before attention was called to it by an uninformed local writer two
important books had exposed it again: Maurice Samuel in "Blood Accusation" and Bernard Malamud
in "The Fixer." But it was a legend to a sensation-seeking writer!
Seventy-six years ago, in an essay entitled "Some Consolation," the Jewish philosopher, Ahad Ha-Am
(Asher Ginsberg), wrote about this atrocious lie and stated:
"What we need ... is some means of emancipating ourselves from the influence of conventional
prejudices as to the characteristics and the moral worth of the Jews. We mast get rid of this self-con-
tempt, this idea that we are really worse than all the world. Otherwise we may in the course of time
become in reality what we now imagine ourselves to be.
"This necessary means of escape the world itself, with its accepted beliefs, affords us—through the
blood-accusation. This accusation is the solitary case in which the general acceptance of an idea about
ourselves does not make us doubt whether all the world can be wrong, and we right, because it is
based on an absolute lie, and is not even supported by any false inference from particular to =her-
sal. Every Jew who has been brought up among Jews knows as an indisputable fact that throughout
the length and breadth of Jewry there is not a single individual who drinks human blood for religious
purposes. We ought, therefore, always to remember that is. this instance the general belief, which is
brought to our notice ever and anon by the revival of the blood-accusation, is absolutely wrong; be-
cause this will make it easier for us to get rid of the tendency to bow is the authority of 'everybody'
in other matters. Let the world say what it will about our moral inferiority: we know that its ideas rest
on pure logic, and have no real scientific basis. Who has ever penetrated into the very heart of the
Jew, and discovered his essential nature? Who has ever weighed the Jew against the non-Jew of the
same class—Jewish tradesman against non-Jewish tradesman, persecuted Jew against persecuted aea-
Jew, starved Jew against starved non-Jew, and so on—who has carried out this test, scientifically and
impartially, and found the balance incline to this side or to that?
"But"—you ask—'is it possible that everybody can be wrong, and the Jew right?'
"Yes, it is possible: the blood-accusation proves it possible. Here, you see, the Jews are right and
perfectly innocent. A Jew and blood—could there be a more complete contradiction? And yet . .."
Why has there been silence when a great newspaper was sullied by having the term "legend"
dragged into the gutter by appending it to one of the vilest lies ever uttered?
Why should it be necessary to resort again to this outcry against ignorance and intolerance? Be-
cause there are, even among our own unknowing elements who are intrigued by what is presented to
them as legend instead of shouting against outrageous lies. Because there undoubtedly are Christians who
will still believe the lie, and if it is presented to them as "legend" they may say perhaps there is truth in
legend. Because there is no obligation to shout against lies and to resent it when Jews fall prey to ignor-
ance.
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Bernard Kops Rebuke
The New Left
We are indebted to the London Jewish Chronicle's columnist
—
"Chronicler" for a magnificent rebuke to the New Left and its associa-
tion witit-,Israel's enemies.
There is a New Left periodical, Tribune, in London, that has fol-
lowed an 'anti-Israel line. The eminent British-Jewish writer, Bernard
Kops, as deeply hurt as all who are seeking the truth and would like to
overcome the menacing barbs from the New Left, sent to the Tribune
an expression of his resentment, and the paper published it. Here is the
text of that splendid verse:
NEITHER YOUR HONEY NOR YOUR STING
Thank you friends, I'm sure I shall be missed,
but I really must continue to resist
the temptation of ceasing to exist.
I have no kids to spare for Genocist,
and I simply cannot wait the threatening fist
to finalize the dream of that National Socialist,
and burned us, and turned us into mist.
And all your tears my friends did nothing to assist.
So do not weep for me dear Tory Columnist—
Holier than thou, comrade Communist—
Fanatical Fascist—
Humble Humanist—
Tortured Trotskyist—
Prancing Arabist-
Anti-Semite now called anti-Zionist.
And do forgive me Schismatic Socialist,
for not becoming another victim on your list
of slogans at next Sunday's Massive Protest
I have killed within myself the Idealist,
and banished from my house the Optimist
and the Pessimist.
aspires to it in the hope of ending
the Israel-Arab conflicts.
Only one President had earned
a Noble Peace Prize Theodore
Roosevelt. Richard M. Nixon would
like to be Number Two in that
sphere of accomplishments.
If he succeeds, he can, like Dr.
Ralph Bunche before him, win the
peace award by helping end the
hot and cold Middle East wars.
But there is also Dr. Gunnar
Jarring. Perhaps he, too, if he re-
turns to action as mediator, will
succeed in that area by finally
breaking down Arab resistance to
the peace efforts he has tried to
conduct for more than a year.
Even if Nixon and Jarring could
share a Noble Peace Prize it would
be something very noble to aspire
to.
We are speculating: if we are
correct it will be worth boasting
of not being too far-fetched.
Top Scientists at Israel's
Technion Society Parley
NEW YORK — World-renowned
scientists in food and textile re-
search and development will ad-
dress the American Technion So-
ciety's 11th annual conference on
So, if you like, shake hands with a Chauvinist.
science and technology this week-
One wonders whether rebukes help with those who are blinded by end at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
prejudices. But the old Hebrew saying—"lo me-uktzekba vlo me-duv-
The conference themes are "TO
shekha"—"neither your honey nor your sting"—still applies, and Hops Help Feed a Hungry World" and
applied it skillfully!
"To Clothe a Nation."
And I am left alone with just one ist.
•
Is Nixon Aspiring
• •
to a Nobel Peace Prize?
Not only Americans but the entire world wonders how the Nixon
administration will tackle the Vietnam and Middle East problems.
Whatever happens in the Near East, this is certain: unless there is
•
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a speedy solution, a quick withdrawal of American troops, President
Nixon
will be charged with the responsibility of what occurs in Viet-
Philip Roth and His Mother
We thought we were through with "Portnoy" and its creator, Philip nam. As long as the shooting continues, he is now the hawk.
But he can still emerge the dove in handling the Middle East crisis.
Roth. But his mother (Mrs. Herman Roth of Elizabeth, N.J.) draws us
back to the subject. Her comment about her son's subject matter was:
This commentator may be all wet, but he has a theory: he believes
that President Nixon would like to be a Nobel Peace Prize winner and
"I think all mothers are Jewish mothers."
What may have been overlooked is that Philip Roth's major gain
has been from two four-letter words: bank roll.
2—Friday, April 18, 1969
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
•
By Philip
Slomovitz
The two-day meeting will focus
on the role of the Tech-
nion — Israel Institute of Techno-
logy in the development of new
and unconventional foods to help
meet the world protein crisis; the
especially
Technion's future in textile _no.
as a major step towasd
industrial
capacity in this field; and the
school's special part in training
the needed engineers and techno-
logists for Israel's widening nuna-
search
broadening Israel's
tier of science-based industries.' ' -